Jody Williams, winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, calls for an end to Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip. Williams chairs the Nobel Women’s Initiative and is author of the forthcoming book, "My Name is Jody Williams: A Vermont Girl’s Winding Path to the Nobel Peace Prize." In 2011, she joined three other women Nobel Peace laureates in calling for the...

As Israeli air strikes continues for a seventh day, we turn to a film by Fida Qishta, a young Palestinian filmmaker born and raised in Gaza. The documentary, produced by Deep Dish TV, is called "Where Should the Birds Fly." The title is taken from a poem by renowned Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. The film looks at the effects of the 22-day Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip in 2008-09 that killed more than 1,400...

We spoke with Mattias Gardell as he sailed through international waters on board the Swedish boat to Gaza, Estelle, before it was seized Saturday by the Israeli military as it attempted to break the Israeli blockade. The boat was called a "provocation" by Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. "What is a provocation is the fact that the current right-wing Israeli government has enforced the illegal seize of Gaza,"...

Dennis Banks, the legendary Native American activist and co-founder of the American Indian Movement, was in New York City this weekend to serve as a jurist at the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, an international people’s tribunal created in 2009 to bring attention to the responsibility other states bear for Israel’s violations of international law. Banks says, "What is happening to [Palestinians] is what we went through during...

We continue our conversation with the legendary poet, author and activist, Alice Walker, who has also been a longtime advocate for the rights of Palestinians. Last summer, she was one of the activists on the U.S. ship that attempted to sail to Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla aimed at challenging Israel’s embargo of the Gaza Strip. Alice Walker also serves on the jury of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, an international...

An Israeli judge has cleared Israel’s military of responsibility for the killing of the U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie. A 23-year-old college student, Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza nine years ago. She was standing in front of a Palestinian home to help prevent its demolition. Today’s ruling came in a wrongful death civil suit brought by Corrie’s family, with the judge rejecting any...

An Israeli government committee has affirmed the country’s self-proclaimed right to build settlements throughout the occupied West Bank and recommended the legalization of dozens of settler outposts that have not received government authorization. The International Court of Justice has already ruled that all of Israel’s West Bank settlements are illegal, but Israel has said it would only consider dismantling scattered outposts that...

The new documentary film, "5 Broken Cameras," tells the story of Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who got his first video camera to film his son growing up, but he went on to document the residents of his village Bil’in resisting the Israeli separation wall. Over the course of the film, one camera after another is smashed or shot as Burnat films his village’s resistance movement. Focused largely on the experience of Burnat...

The award-winning new documentary, "5 Broken Cameras," tells the story of a Palestinian farmer who got a video camera to record his son’s childhood, but ended up documenting the growth of the resistance movement to the Israeli separation wall in the West Bank village of Bil’in. The film shows the nonviolent tactics used by residents of Bil’in as they join with international and Israeli activists to protest the...

Well over a year into the Arab Spring, the author and scholar Norman Finkelstein argues that there is a new, albeit quieter, awakening happening here in the United States that could provide a major boost to the winds of change in the Middle East. In his new book, "Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Romance with Israel Is Coming to an End," Finkelstein contends that American Jewish support for the Israeli government is...

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